📉 Why did the number change, or why is last month low?

If a number you saw before has moved, or the newest month looks unusually low, this is expected. It is how police records arrive, not an error.

Late records keep arriving

HPD enters and releases records with a delay. For about a month after a month ends, more records for it keep arriving, so the newest month is always the least complete and its number goes up as it fills in. That is why it is marked Provisional.

What to do about it

Read the newest month as "so far," not "final." If you need a final figure, step back one month with the time machine. About a month after it ends, a month is marked final.

Other reasons a number moves

• A correction by HPD. If HPD's open data revises or reclassifies records, we show the corrected figure. When a final month's total changes this way, the dashboard says so in words: a "For the record" line under the signal cards names the month, the old figure, and the new one.
• The start of a record. A signal that begins partway through is marked, so its first month is not read as a jump in activity.
• A small count hidden. A count involving people that fell below its privacy line (5, or 10 where a victim could be identified) is hidden rather than shown as a small number.